Etc.: The bus will pull in to Boulder Tuesday, May 29 and will be in town through Friday, June 1. For details on where to find the pop-up museum before its Friday Fiske appearance at facebook.com/deltacollab.

"The sun does not shine so bright in the 22nd century," co-pilots of the social justice project Delta Collaborative pen at deltacollab.org. "This is a time of thick polluted air, of watersheds choked with plastic bags, and fish upturned and smelling. This is a time of pale trees and quieting forests."

The year is 2113 and co-pilots Elena Ricciardi and Emma Yip have returned "from the future" to help the planet save its Mother and to encourage an ecologically just society.

Technically, they're recent UC Berkeley grads who are touring the nation in old yellow school bus that's been transformed into an environmental justice pop-up museum. Yip and Ricciardi, who reside in New Orleans, have been touring the nation to spark activism through conversation.

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"We're interested in bridging the political divide in our country," said Ricciardi. "We wanted to interact with people who have different political views than ourselves. The environment is a seemingly shared concern that can help bring us closer in a divided America that was exposed after the presidential election."

Yip and Ricciardi were on a break in Santa Fe, N.M., Wednesday, getting Timeship #39, or "Choolie," a checkup. The pair have been traveling from Louisiana to Colorado for the past few weeks and will spend the rest of the summer going through the Midwest and South. They typically stop in various parking lots, like Walmart, flip on the open sign and invite visitors in for a free visit. They pull into Boulder Tuesday, May 29, and at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 1, the pair will be at the Fiske Planetarium, 2414 Regent Drive, Boulder.

"Language and discourse around the environment is a big part of the project," said Yip. "Our goal is to hear the needs and issues of middle America. When we find common ground that will get us closer to solving shared issues."

The the pop-up museum has stories of environmental degradation and social inequality on one side with the other side "focused on change-makers and innovations that are bettering the environment," said Yip.

"So much of the time the environment seems to be a burdensome subject and that will create climate denial," said Ricciardi. "We tell people who come visit the bus to find their own environmentalism. We think that finding a unique environmentalism to each place we visit will help address specific needs and lifestyles."

In Lafayette, La., for example, Ricciardi said a professor from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette thanked the pair for their activism, noting that many of her students feel alone with their efforts, as they live in a city where the oil industry is dominant.

"We somewhat expected hostility and confrontation in some of the more conservative towns we've visited," said Ricciardi, "but those places are where we've had our best conversations. People have been cordial, encouraging and thankful we are spending our time with them."

The social justice pair utilize a fictional future narrative — involving space and time travel, the Koch brothers as commercial purveyors, 1970s disco parties and space-time dilation technology — to help spark the conversation.

"It's imaginative, quirky, strange and from the future," said Ricciardi. "The back story is really important. We want to uphold a theatrical and carnivalesque setting. It makes for interesting conversations."

Ricciardi and Yip encourage people to follow the travels of Timeship #39 on social media where they'll announce the pop-up location: facebook.com/deltacollab or instagram.com/timeship_39. The bus opens up only at night for comfort (climate control) — and the "really cool lights," said Yip.

"The presidential election made many really sorrowful about environmental progress," said Yip. "It's something that needs to be addressed right now, but unfortunately we have to wait until the next term for meaningful change to be pushed. But people are ready to see dramatic change. We're trying to do our part to start conversations."

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